please help with ballast wiring!

[s0larb3ar]

Hi,

I currently have a 20 G with its original 18" 15W Eclipse light strip. I'm trying to make a DIY light fixture by adding a second 18" 15W light strip, connecting the new and original to one ballast. I have an Advance electronic ballast that is suitable for the setup, but for some reason I can't connect it together so that it works. I've looked at the handy diagram they have on the ballast, and I've done my best to emulate it.

The ballast comes with the usual black and white wire which i've dutifully connected to the outlet line, two blue wires, and one red wire.

If someone could draw out a crude diagram (that includes the two terminals in the endcaps) or describe step-by-step how I connect these together, that would be so great!

Any help would be appreciated, even if it's to tell me that i got the wrong equipment!

BTW, I'm a new member and I just got my second tank...and trying to do this one justice! Hey all

 

[epond83]

you need four blue ends and four red ends, which means to need to use some wire nuts and make some 'Y' s. One end of each light needs two blue wires going into the socket, the other end needs two red wires. If that doesn't help enough i could draw up something.

 

[s0larb3ar]

That helps, epond83, thanks so much.

I have two questions:
1) how do I make the 'Y' connections now that i have wirenuts, and
2) how do I get four red wire connections from the one red wire?

You don't have to draw up a diagram, but if it helps with the explaining, that would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Macfish]

Pretty sure he was saying cut 4 lengths of wire for each wire to be split, twist those together with the original colored wire from the ballast and wire nut them together. … How I read it anyways.

 

[epond83]

yeah macfish has it.

Take one blue wire and twist in two lenghts of wire that will reach to on end of the bulb (if you use blue it helps keep things simple)

Then do the same for the other blue wire to the other bulb.

Now for the other side of the two bulbs, i have no idea why there are two blues and only one red, all baslests i've seen are like this... maybe an electrictian could explain this.
Anyway,

Twist in two lenghts of wire (preferably red) into the one red, now you have two free red ends, then do the same with each of the ned red ends so you will end up with four free ends. Then connect all these to the two bulbs, doesn't really matter how since they all lead to the same wire.

While doing this plan ahead so everything reaches properly, you may need to buy more wire to do all this, if so get the solid core like the ballest has, not the twisted core which is common for small gage wire.

On a side note you could twist four lenghts of wire into the one red and then connect those but you would a big wirenut and 5 wires twisted together can be tricky so doing two splits works better usaully.

Hope that helps and let me know if you need any more help, I just built a hood with two 36" flroecent bulbs i wired into it so it's still all fresh for me.

 

[s0larb3ar]

thanks! i'm going to try it out tonight, if i have anymore questions, i'll ask

 

[s0larb3ar]

Well, i connected everything like you all said, and...it's still not working. Could the problem be with the AC connection itself? Does the ballast require a 3-prong outlet, or is a 2-prong ok? Even when i connected the ballast to one light strip, it still didn't work.

I really hope there isn't something wrong with the ballast itself, because i've (obviously) already opened the package and cut wires...ergh

p.s. i reinstalled the original single light strip and both light strips work fine

 

[Orion]

So you wired up both tubes back to the old ballast that was in the old light strip, and everything worked, correct?

If that's the case, then you've at least got the concept of whats going on, and I would start double checking my wiring and the plug in. If you can't find anything wrong then yes, I would think it might well be the ballast.

 

[epond83]

Well is is a wiring diagram, if you have the two red and two blue on either end of each bulb then i would look at your power source

You should use a three prong because of the ground, I'm at work so i can't look at my hood but i belive the ballast housing needs grounded, if the is a ground wire (usaully bare are green) connect that to the ground in the three prong cord. If just the housing it self needs ground just connect the ground in the cord. Hope all that makes since.

Other then ground connect the white to one wire in your power cord and the black to the other. Feel free to post pictures or something maybe we can spot something that is not right that you are over looking.

Good luck

 

[s0larb3ar]

Hey thanks for all your help, i know its a little difficult without pictures (i don't have a camera on me).

Well, the ballast works fine, i figured that out on accident =\..

epond83, yes, based on your answer it looks like my housing is the one that needs a ground wire, since that diagram you posted is the exact same as the one I have. Unfortunately, the plug i have is only two-prong. Is it possible to buy a plug with the ground prong, and if so, how would i "connect the ground in the cord"?

I'll try to take pics with my cell phone and post it later tonight.

 

[epond83]

I got mine at a hard ware store in the electrical area, they had a three prong extention cord that had the other end with three bare wires, i think it was called an replacement cord or something.

There will be a black and white wire (you know what to do with those). There will be a green wire simply loop that around a screw that you use to mount the ballast so the head of the screw holds the wire tight agisnt the metal housing.

Another optoin is this

crimp the ground wire on to it then put the screw through it before mounting the ballast. One is more profesonal but both ways will work.

Let us know how it goes hopefully should work perfect now.

 

[ryanleclair]

if your ballast is not ment for two bulbs you can not do it

 

[s0larb3ar]

hi, my housing is plastic, and not metal..also, does it matter that the new replacement cord i got was rated @ 125V while the ballast is rated at 277V? It was the only one that was a 16gauge..they only had this and 14 gauges, no 18 gauges...

 

[s0larb3ar]

Also, it says on the ballast:

GROUND: Ballast and mount lamps within 3/4" of grounded metal reflector.

I had no idea that it was required, so i guess i'm going to have to do that? So many trips to homedepot but its still cheaper than buying a whole new hood.

 

[epond83]

hmm never heard of the grounded metal reflector part, but what ever it says i guess would be good to follow.

The the housing of the light doesn't matter, as long as the ground from the cord is conneccted to the metal casing of the ballast it should work.

 

[epond83]

so i was looking at some other florecent light set ups and the ground might not be required. If after you hook up the ground and it's still not working, try and get ahold of a camera (maybe even cell phone pics) and post up so we can figure out whats going on.

 

[s0larb3ar]

~100kB warning

Hi,

Well my roommate came back from vacation and she's got a camera, thank goodness.

First picture is the diagram that is on the ballast.

Second picture: ballast connected to the light sockets. I know there is some switching of color, but I hope that's not the problem.

Third picture: Ballast connected to the line, with ground line just hangin' out. The black wire from the ballast is connected to the black wire in the line, white to white.

Fourth picture: Close-up of the wires connected into the light sockets, red-wire side.

Fifth picture: Close-up of the wires connected into the light sockets, blue-wire side.

Also, one thing i noticed that was different between your diagram and mine was that it looks like the lamps themselves are supposed to be grounded too in my diagram (I guess that's what they meant by using a metal reflector).

Tell me what you think..

 

[epond83]

Well you have it all wired up correctly, as far as i can tell. so when you hook up the bulbs you get nothing at all? no flickering and noise like they are trying to fire up?

Grounding should be your problem with AC it's just a back up not like DC where things won't work.

What is the model and part number so i can look up more info on this particular one, i've never seen the bulbs needing grounded, but like i said that's usaully back up.

There might be a way to test with a multimeter to make sure you are getting proper power at certin places, but that is a little beyond me.

also what kind of bulbs do you have? T8? T12? and are they new? (sorry just have to ask to make sure)

One thing to check is that everything is conected well, the wire going into the sockects are metal on metal (almost imposible to pull them out now though) and take the wire nuts off and make sure eveyrthing is touching properly... good luck.

 

[s0larb3ar]

Yeah, i never really thought grounding was required for it to just work. There's no buzzing, or flickering, and in fact, i've left it plugged in for sometime, and nothing gets warm..

Yep, the connections were the first things i checked as well as each of the bulbs to make sure they worked.

I have two F15T8 bulbs, and the ballast says it works with:

(2) F32T8, or
(2) F25T8, or
(2) F17T8

It doesn't say it works with F15T8, but as far as i know, the number after the "F" denotes wattage, and i didn't think that 17 watts was that different from 15 watts.

The model number etc:
Advance STANDARD VEL-2P32-SC INSTANT-START ELECTRONIC BALLAST..yep, there's a troubleshooting guide in PDF and it also says that i need to check with a multimeter etc..I have no idea how much that is, but i'm pretty ready to get custom hood lightling from AHSupply instead. Although..a part of me isn't ready to give up on this DIY project just yet.

 

[epond83]

well you can get a multimeter for like $20 and they are nice to have around for other stuff. Yeah i would try going through the troble shooting guide.

You said that you knew the balast work accidently? did you shock yourself or something? maybe when it wasn't wire up properly you shorted it out or something? which is where the multimeter and trobleshoot might come in handy.

Hope it works out for you, it was a fun simple project when i did it, sorry it hear it went astray on you.